>> E-bay, the world's largest online auctioneer, has launched a website that allows people to invest in loans that lift people out of poverty. The website, called MicroPlace, acts as a broker between ordinary investors and microfinance organisations. For as little as US $100, investors in the US will be able to help entrepreneurs in poor countries, be they coffee sellers in Cambodia or hairdressers in Ghana. The investments last between two and four years.
>> Australia's first 24 hour indigenous television channel, National Indigenous Television (NITV), has begun telecast. Programmes include music shows, sport events and documentaries. But aboriginal communities that were previously able to watch their home-made programmes in language say the content is too mainstream and too sad.
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